Nigel Unwin

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Peter Nigel Tripp Unwin (born November 1, 1942 ) is a British neurobiologist and emeritus researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) of the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge .

Life

Unwin earned a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Otago and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. before he went to the LMB in 1968. Between 1980 and 1988 he was Professor of Cell Biology at Stanford University in Stanford , California , before moving back to the LMB, where he became Head of the Department of Neurobiology in 1992. From 2003 to 2008 he was co-director of the department.

Act

The ACh-n receptor from the electric ray ( torpedo ) in side view (right) and top view (left) according to PDB  2BG9

Together with Richard Henderson , Unwin succeeded for the first time ever in elucidating the structure of a membrane protein , bacteriorhodopsin . Unwin has developed new methods of electron microscopy to use the diffraction of electrons to clarify the structure of biological macromolecules , in particular of ion channels such as the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor , which plays a special role in signal transduction between nerve cells or between nerve cells and muscle fibers . The resolution of his analysis of this receptor in the electric ray ( torpedo ) reaches 4 angstroms .

Awards (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • A. Miyazawa, Y. Fujiyoshi and N. Unwin: Structure and gating mechanism of the acetylcholine receptor pore. In: Nature . Volume 423, 2003, pp. 949-955
  • N. Unwin: Refined structure of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor at 4A resolution. In: J Mol Biol. Volume 346, 2005, pp. 967-989
  • J. O'Brien, N. Unwin: Organization of spines on the dendrites of Purkinje cells. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Volume 103, 2006, pp. 1575-1580

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Ruska Prize of the German Society for Electron Microscopy (dge-homepage.de); Retrieved July 15, 2011
  2. ^ Fellows of the Royal Society (royalsociety.org); Retrieved July 15, 2011
  3. ^ Past Winners - Rosenstiel Award - Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center - Brandeis University. In: brandeis.edu. Retrieved January 23, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Les lauréats du Prix Louis Jeantet de médecine in 1996 in the Louis-Jeantet Foundation (jeantet.ch); Retrieved July 15, 2011
  5. ^ Nigel Unwin at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (kva.se); Retrieved July 15, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Unwin, Nigel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unwin, Peter Nigel Tripp (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British neurobiologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1942